How to take great sunset, sunrise pictures. – Belize, Cayo Espanto, on location.
Do your sunrise/sunset pictures look too dark? Can you see “detail in the land areas” in your pictures?
Buying a new lens or camera won’t help you fix these problems. When shooting sunsets or sunrise you need to be aware of what the “subject value range” is. This is referred to as the “EV” (Exposure value) of a picture area. This is the difference between the bright sun and the dark shadow area that is usually in the foreground of a sunset. If you meter different values within your picture area you will see different EV values. Minimizing the “contrast range within your picture frame” helps- how much sky, how much foreground, where the camera is, and setting the right exposure are the key to great sunset, sunrise shots.
Camera sensors can only handle a certain range of lights and darks. Anything outside of that range gets “blown out”on the bright end (looks like pure white) and looks like mud on the low end. Black with “no detail in the shadows.”
Also you can’t just set your camera in “auto mode” and think that you are going to get a great shot. You know that doesn’t work, just look at the foreground of your pictures I would bet you that they look like mud, with zero detail in those areas. And Probably look like a silhouette against a very bright sky.
Most amateurs try to over compensate with what I call “Slide-a-tide-us” over saturating a photo and turning it into “fantasy land.” (moving the saturation and vibrancy sliders in photo editing) Thus making another mistake to fix the first mistake. I can’t tell you how many beginning/intermediate photographers “oversaturate” their images thinking that this actually looks great. It does not. Anyone that tells you that it does is clueless about exposure, art history, aesthetics and is really a want-a-be Fauvist painter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauvism
In order to pull off a sunset/sunrise shot (like the shot of Belize that I took) you “expose for the highlights” in digital imaging, once we’ve over-exposed our highlights, there is no way to get any detail back, so we have to protect our highlights when shooting in digital and “bring up the shadows” (exposure) in post production.
Shoot in “Manual mode” and use a spot meter. I teach all of these techniques in my private lessons/classes that I offer. If you want to improve your photography Contact me, I’m now in Rockport To learn more about my classes go here.
“You don’t take a picture, you make a picture.”Ansel Adams
